Coalition Spotlight - Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai

by Thomas Roane

NCC Medical Advisor Dr. Beatrice Wiafe, MD, Ph.D., examines a breast cancer patient at the P&L Hospital in Kumasi.

Date Published: October 02, 2011

Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai,MD, Ph.D. is the CEO of the Peace & Love Hospitals in Ghana and is President of Breast Care International (BCl), a non-governmental organization in Ghana. BCI partnered with NCC three years ago to help fulfill the unmet needs of breast and cervical cancer patients in Ghana, and the Peace & Love Hospital is NCC’s partner hospital for this community outreach. Dr. Wiafe is an internationally respected, and highly decorated, breast cancer specialist in General Surgery & Breast Pathology who is referred breast cancer patients from all regions of Ghana – we’re extremely proud to work with her and her institution.

I spoke with Dr. Addai recently to ask her some questions about her recent work so that our coalition community can learn more about her amazing impact in Ghana.

What is your role with the National Cancer Coalition?

My foundation Breast Care International (BCI) officially signed a memorandum of understanding with NCC three years ago to help fulfill the unmet needs of women’s cancer patients in Ghana. Our collaboration is creating cancer awareness and provides access to medicines for underserved Ghanaians with cancer, as well as the vital role of training community-based registered nurses who serve at the front line of treating cancer patients seeking help in the rural areas of our country. NCC has provided over $10 million worth of much needed prescription pharmaceuticals to Ghana in partnership with BCI, and we are responsible for the distribution and utilization of those medicines within our programs.

What types of programs do you work on together?

In partnership with the NCC, we have a medicines access program – supporting underserved patients at the BCI hospital, as well as other public hospitals in Ghana. With the support of Johnson & Johnson, NCC & BCI have held cancer training for registered nurses throughout Ghana. We have also been approved and will shortly begin a cancer prevention program to provide Gardasil vaccines in order to protect thousands of young Ghanaian women from cervical cancer.

You are the leading breast cancer physician in Ghana; what led you to this field?

I specialized in breast cancer because I realized that it wasn’t given the due attention it deserves. It is barely talked about even though it claims more lives than malaria, HIV, and the like. Breast cancer was silently killing our women and it was because they didn’t know anything about it. We were not talking about it.

What is your vision or dream for women’s cancer care in Ghana?

My vision is for the women of Ghana to be educated and aware of breast cancer. To know that it is curable when detected in the early stages and that you do not die if you undergo an operation. Breast cancer is mystified in Ghana and most women think they have been cursed. They also don’t know anything about breast cancer and they only come to the hospital when the disease is late stage and too late to operate. I want to educate women about breast cancer, so they seek for medical help as soon as they notice any difference in their breasts and also when we go for screenings, we teach them how to perform self-examinations and encourage them to talk about it more often. My dream is to get more and more survivors of breast and cervical cancers in Ghana! I also dream of a time when husbands will not leave their wives when they realize that they have breast cancer but rather stand by them and even encourage them go through the treatment, and even ask to come for regular screenings at the hospital.

Who or what inspired you to work so hard for the women of your country?

The need to save lives and to ensure that women with traces of the disease should be encouraged to seek medical treatment. As a woman, I know how precious the breast is to the average Ghanaian woman both for lactating babies and for dressing. A woman with one or both breast severed to save her life can feel so dejected in life, but with the substitution of the silicon or artificial breast, the stigma associated with either being breast-less or half-breasted is completely removed from the mind of women with such conditions.

NCC depends on American individuals to provide financial support to our programs. What do you want NCC supporters to know about NCC programs that prevent, detect and treat women’s cancer in Ghana and around the world?

Financial supporters of NCC must know that their gifts are making a huge difference in Ghana. Because NCC collaborates with leading medical companies, their donor’s financial gifts can be leveraged to help thousands of individuals in my country just by covering the logistics costs to ship the medicines and properly distribute and monitor the therapies at our recipient hospitals. I pray that they continue to support us and the women of Ghana.

Please describe the impact that your collaboration with NCC has made in Ghana in the past 3 years?

In the past 3 years, our collaboration with NCC has been significant and made great impact. Specifically we have provided:

Over $10 million worth of medicines to help thousands of Ghanaian women and families have modern medicines to treat their disease.

Oncology training of nursing has for the first time been initiated for the first time in our country.

The trained nurses have also emerged as trainers in their various districts to share their knowledge and skills acquired at the workshops with their colleagues, as well as in a couple cases have successfully lobbied for development of women’s cancer early detection units at their regional hospitals.

Trained nurses in cancer detection are teaching women how to do self breast screening and advised clients not to delay in reporting all breast related disturbances to the nearest health facility.